Budget housing allocation of €3.3 billion does ‘nothing, zilch nada’ for renters

Taoiseach Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald of engaging in “propagandistic” language over the Government’s €3.3 billion budget allocation for housing.

Mr Martin insisted that housing was the Government’s number one priority and it aimed to give funding to local authorities and approved bodies to build social and affordable homes in the “biggest social housing programme in the history of the State”.

This was key to solving the housing crisis he said as he rejected claims by Ms McDonald that the €3.3 billion budget allocation was “massively disappointing”. The Taoiseach insisted it was “fantastic by any yard stick”.

But during leaders’ questions Ms McDonald said there was nothing propagandistic about her language when “rent protection zones don’t work, haven’t worked, will never work”.

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She said the Taoiseach was “bigging up” the €3.3 billion budget allocation when the Government was doing “nothing, zilch, nada” for renters while delivering “plenty” for landlords.

The average rent is more than €1,400 across the State and more than €2,000 in Dublin for a two-bedroom unit. "This is not the Taj Mahal, " the Dublin Central TD added.

And she said the Government had failed to introduce its affordable housing plan despite a commitment to do so in September.

Stating that the budget provision was disappointing, she said there was an urgent and immediate need for Government to introduce measures to stop rent increases.

There were increases of almost 3 per cent outside Dublin, in the last year. “It’s alarming to see rental increases of almost 5 per cent in Cork, in Galway, in Waterford and as large as 7 per cent in counties like Wexford.”

Mr Martin insisted that the Residential Tenancies Board had the powers to enforce rent controls effectively.

He said that at this stage of 73 per cent of €399,000 private rental tenancies are covered by rental pressure zone restrictions.

The Taoiseach added that in a “compare and contrast” with Sinn Féin’s performance on housing the in the North. He said there were far greater protections in place in the State than in the North.

Mr Martin added: “We acknowledge that there’s a lot of work to be done,” and it would be done through Malta-annual funding. “We want to build the largest social housing programme over the next five years. That’s our agenda.”